A new school year has begun here in the US and that means parents will be chasing the kids down for forgotten homework, crumpled permission slips and library books that were due weeks ago. Not to mention the trail of shoes, hats, jackets and backpacks, which, in my house at least, lead to the refrigerator. Save yourself some frustration — and teach the kids responsibility at the same time — by creating a “landing area” for all their stuff.

When I was young, my sisters and I were often late for school because we spent too much time in the morning running around like headless chickens who can’t find their Trapper Keepers. Such drama is easily avoided with a little planning and practice. It begins with picking the right spot for a landing area in your home.

Pick The Perfect Spot

Your kid’s landing area won’t be effective if it isn’t in the right spot. Finding that spot isn’t as easy as it sounds. The key is to identify an area of your home that’s in the arrival traffic pattern, preferably the very beginning. It’s tempting to consider a beautiful desk or cubby that’s far from the door. (Or even Jr.’s bedroom.) But, if Jr. is anything like my kids, he’ll either create a path between the door and his room, or lose his stuff somewhere in between.

My wife and I have identified a small cabinet just inside the back door to our house (no one uses the front door unless they’re selling something). Now, the kids enter and just as they’re tempted to shed their backpacks, hats, gloves and coats like molting snakes, they see the table right in their path.

Set It Up

When setting it all up, consider what you’ve got to capture. The list will likely change as the seasons do, so keep that in mind. If you live in an area that experiences the highs and lows of the four seasons, leave room for bulky winter clothing. Here’s the list of items we’ve accommodated for, and where each one goes.

Backpacks. The young student’s staple. We bought a small, child-sized coat tree from a discount department store to hold two backpacks. It works great and, since the backpacks are all that the tree holds, it handles their bulk easily.

Clothing. We went Shaker-style here and I put two rows of wooden pegs on the wall, one above the other. There’s plenty of room for hats, coats, gloves and scarves.

An “inbox” for school-to-home communication. This one is a biggie. If my 9-year-old were a super hero, her power would be losing papers, permission slips and notes in a single bound. A simple plastic in-tray from an office supply store fits the bill here. Now when she and her brother arrive home, they move papers, etc. from their backpacks to the inbox (more on encouraging this behavior later).

An “outbox” for home-to-school communication. As you know, some forms must be returned to school. Place them in “Out,” and have Jr. check it at night before going to bed.

A snack/lunch bag area. I’d love to say that I make lunches and snacks the night before and keep them in the ’fridge, but that’s called lying. After hastily putting these items together at 7:00 AM, I plop them in the bag area on the table. The kids then toss them into their backpacks.

Library books. After receiving a few threatening letters from school librarians last year, I’ve designated a spot for library books. The rule is, if you see one there, place it in your backpack.

Encourage Use

A landing area is all well and good only if it gets used. You can help that happen with a little behavior motivation. Prior to my career as a professional geek, I worked as a special needs teacher. We used the Applied Behavior Analysis model of instruction, and today I use some of the same techniques in my parenting. In this case, a contract system will work wonders. Here’s how to set it up.

Explain the landing area to the kids and let them see it. Tell them how it works and why you’re going to use it. Then, set up the contract. For example, I have a simple dry erase board that onto which I’ve drawn two rows of five squares. For every day that the kids put away their stuff and empty their backpacks before descending upon the house, they get a star in a block. If there are five stars at the end of the week, they receive a small treat.

Note: it’s important to pair praise and affection with the treat. That way, you can eventually stop using the contract and reward (that is the goal, after all) as your hugs and appreciation will be enough to maintain the behavior.

That’s it! Good luck setting up your landing area. Understand that it won’t work perfectly every day, or even every week, but keep at it and save yourself and your kids some frustration. You’ll probably be very glad you did.

10 Comments for “Create a landing area for your kid’s school stuff”

I need to do this for my house mate – every time he leaves the house there is a hunt for his phone, ipod, wallet keys etc. There are about 5 ipod cables in the house and he is always hunting ofr one as he never leaves anything in the one place!

school kids or not, every house needs a landing area. A small bowl by the front door for my keys, phone, etc has probably saved me 2-3 hours of searching time in the morning over the past year and I’m 28.

We do this in our house for our two kids, with one difference. We don’t do a reward chart for getting things where they belong. Instead, if they don’t get to where they belong, and things get forgotten, the kids deal with the natural consequences that come from that. Missing homework once or twice is generally enough for them to make sure to get their homework in their backpack. A forgotten snack leads to being a bit hungry when they come home from school, and helps them to remember to put it in the backpack the next day.

I pretty firmly believe that kids don’t need or deserve treats for doing things they need to do anyway. I do thank them for keeping their items where they belong, and give gentle reminders from time to time if they need it. They feel their own reward when they have their snack and get to eat it at school, or when they get their homework in on time.

New problem relating to this that emerged in middle/high school years… their backpacks weigh a ton! The system I had set up during the elementary years had to be reworked to accommodate the backpacks that ate Manhattan. For the heaviest one, I ended up using an over the door hook to hand it from- I hope the door holds up!

For the bigger backpacks use a shoe rack? Since they have to leave the house with their shoes on, put those underneath their backpack.
I’m so happy the school keeps gym bags at school, during holiday’s we get them home to wash, but now we don’t have to worry about taking them at the right day.

How we handle this in our home:
We went to Ikea… duh! We bought some stuff from Fintorp.

We now have some hooks to hang a basket that holds empty and clean lunchboxes and school cups. They can hang their empty backpack on a hook next to it.

We also have a calender with a basket that contains pens. So if there’s letter from school about an activity, we write it on the calender before putting the letter away.
The day before we watch the calender.
And we have a whiteboard. It says the school-times (for those who don’t take the kids to school as regular as I do…) It has a list of all the holidays for this school-year. Easy to plan stuff ahead without having to search the entire calender for the dates.
It also holds information about the school, the class they are in and their teachers name.
And of course plenty of space to hang those beautiful made junk we get from our loved ones <3

The drop zone is absolutely the worst spot in our house for clutter. Paper tends to pile up on the counter closest to the garage door. Having all the coats and backpacks could really help make mornings much easier. Thanks for the tips!

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